Isobel looked at what Professor Bishop was holding up. It was a crystal ball, she could plainly see that. It was hard to mistake it for other things. She raised her hand. "The first thing I think of when I see that is seeing the future. Because people try to see the future in crystal balls."

William raised his hand. " Professor, I know it is a Crystal ball in front of you" William told her. " I am pretty sure that it can be used for seeing a past person in your life "William said to the profewssor. William hopes he is right.

Oooooh! Daichi had heard about those balls before! Who was it that had told him that? He thought for a moment, frowning. Suddenly he remembered his big brother telling him about crystal balls. And that thing looks like one!

Pushing his hand in the air, Daichi was still wondering about what to say. "Eeh.. Future! he finally answered and lowered his hand. Grinning proudly.

Penny smiled when Rose talked about pranks, she had heard from Roses' brothers about the various pranks she had pulled - one of them involving a water balloon full of Swelling Potion which left her brother with a nose the size of a dinner plate..

Penny silently agreed that Rose could use the advantage - especially as her brother would be starting Hogwarts next year and he would probably be getting his own back for all her past pranks...

"I don't think anyone else saw your trip.., trying to make Rose less conscious...I'm taking Divination because it is a sister class of Arithmancy... kinda hoping it will help me understand all that future telling stuff..."

"Yes, I believe we do share a dorm. And that's fine if you want to sit there. I don't mind," Rebecca said to Penny. "And I'm Rebecca. Sorry for not saying so sooner. Hehe." She was happy to see that someone from her dorm wanted to sit with her.

Kimalia rose her hand after taking a few moments to look at the crystal ball "Well, to be frank ma'am, the first thing that pops into my mind when I see that are some muggles who claim to be fortune tellers." Not that she had any problems with muggles, but the fact that some pretend to possess such powers is absolutely insulting. "I've seen some of those booths and they always have them placed on the table where they gaze into what looks like nothing but fog."

Ariadne didn't think of much else besides future events when she looked at the crystal ball, but some students had already mentioned that. Another thing that popped into her head was a worthless piece of information she had read somewhere. 'Sybill Trelawney had used crystal balls to fight against Death Eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts.' Wait? Did she just say that out loud?!? Ooops...'Er-I read that somewhere...but we're probably using the crystal ball to interpret the future, right?' the firstie tried to cover up and ended up blushing.

Hmm. "Good...good." Yup, she was doing good.

...

Not really, but they all could just pretend right? It wasn't like she was throwing a tantrum or...that crystal ball for that matter. So she was doing good. Just as long as no certain annoying blue eyed she-snake showed up. And she didn't mean Bissy.

Aaaand, now the class was starting. GOOD. Something to take her mind off things.

What is the first thing that came to mind...when they see that? Frowning, she tilted to her head to the side slightly, staring at the crystal ball. While a few people said something about future or a person's life, that was definitely not what she thought of first. "A bubble." It...looked like a bubble.

Clear...had a reflection...was round...it was totally a bubble.

Eino had always wanted to learn how to use a crystal ball but he could never see anything on it other than his own reflection. "Crystal balls are used in the practice of scrying. They also make good paperweights!" He said with his hand raised. Well, he had a very small one and doubted it was real, but it resembled a crystal ball and it was a multipurpose item. They also looked like marbles but it would be very difficult to play with them, unless they were giants. Hmmm, maybe giants used crystal balls as marbles.

Penny looked up at the Professor to see what she was holding..."oh i know this" thought Penny....Putting her hand in the air..."It's a Crystal Ball and the first thing i think of is those old women in the circus or carnival pretending to See stuff, magical people use it to see into the future and read omens" ...hoping she was right...

Rose looked up to see a sphere ball in Professor Bishop's hand recognising it her hand shot up in the air...fidgeting a little she answered..
" Um...it's a crystal ball, i think it's used for looking at the future and possibly receiving prophecies"...

Feeling a little unsure of her answer Rose blushed.....she hoped for the best

Well, Kurumi's first thought was that it reminded her of a scary old woman in her town who tricked people into thinking that she could see the future by looking into one of those things. Kurumi had given her some coins once to see if she would get strawberry milk at dinner and the woman had said without a doubt that she would. Kurumi had arrived home and there was no strawberry milk. She had been very disappointed.

Oh, right! She was supposed to say what she thought the object was. Well, everyone had already gone over the crystal ball bit. "I believe that that is made from beryllium aluminum silicate, which is more commonly known as beryl," Kurumi said with her hand raised. "Due to it being one of the more transparent gems, it is often used for divination. Although, I believe rock crystal is also used."

Of course, Josh was bored so quickly though the class was one he found pretty much fun, Divination, for he had been sitting alone now and sitting alone was just plain boring. Pffft. Whereeee was his girlfriend? Either Lafay had taken his eyes too or the she-snake had not bothered to participate at all since he knew she kinda disliked the subject.

*sigh*

After the deep sigh he let out, the Gryffindor boy looked around and his dark brown gaze stopped on another, younger she-snake: Sierra Greingoth the Poisonous Princess herself. Bahahahaha. Apparently he was wrong, he had not been sitting alone. So inching his way towards the Slytherin, he settled himself down right next to her, leaned to the seat next to him and placed his lower legs with his feet on the girl's lap getting into a comfortable position. ''That's nice thanks''



Aha!

There was Bishop! Tell us what awesome stuff you had for this class woman! Like do it now! Hehehehehhee. No need to be rude of course. He was just mind joking. And mind joking was those jokes he had in mind which had not been voiced out yet. Learned something new? Yea, you definitely had.

Hehe...

Watching the woman carefully, his eyes got fixed on the crystall ball which was known to be used for seeing stuff to get info about one's info. But the professor did not ask that, did she? Nope. She had asked what was the first thing that came to his mind. And what was that? ''A huge pearl that i would like to present my beloved Evelyn!'' he uttered rather loudly with a huge smirk on his face.

Jai scratched the back of his head and replied,"Well, Professor I see something you look through but you won't see what you expect to see."
He wasn't sure of his answer but it was worth a try.

Alex nodded and wobbled on his seat a bit when Salamander (or whatever his name was) pat him on the back...he hadn't been expecting that. He was about to open his mouth and reply with a grin that he was totally ready for divination, when the class began. OOOOH look at that pretty crystal ball in her hands! He needed a crystal ball. Not to look into, but just as decoration. They were so cool looking.

He raised his hand. "Well, when I look at it I think of prophecies. I mean, I know that's NOT a prophecy, but they look very similar--round orb, allusion of swirly stuff inside, except the prophecies actually HAVE something in them whereas the orbs just LOOK like they do..." he stopped, realizing that he was rambling. "Or...so I've heard."

But yeah. Prophecies. That's what he thought of.

Hannah raise her hand a crystal ball use to see the past and future.Its use in telling fortune telling so is tarot cards.Proffesor Later can i have tarot card reading in your office.

It didn't even occur to her that she was pushing the Prefect around, like literally. To Mia, he was just Treyen or Trey as she liked to call him. She nodded her head in approval as he sat down beside her. "Good. If we need to partner up at least it will be with someone I know." Not that she had a problem meeting new people at all.

At the sound of someone's voice Mia, looked over at the firstie and gave her a warm smile. "Sure. Sure." she said waving her hand to a nearby chair. "The more, the merrier."


"Oh. Oh. Oh!" Mia raised her hand in the air and was almost bouncing out of her seat. "The first thing that comes to my mind is good old Rosemarita ripping off the poor single ladies in town by telling them that there was a tall, dark and handsome stranger in their future. It used to raise hell when a stranger used to roll through town."

It became catfight city.

Talon stared at the ball. It looked like a crystal ball to him. But that would never do. So instead he replied "Fog in a ball?" Then he thought harder and replied from something he heard before "I see a crystal ball and fog,fog so dark that a Dark Mark could appear in it." Okay,that wasn't really what he thought,but it was very cool.

Hmmm...

What did the girl think of when she saw a crystal ball? "The first thing that comes to my mind is emptiness," she said, sincerely. The ball was just a ball, but maybe held magic abilities. That would be the reason the professor was showing it to them. Peyton didn't know much about crystal balls, but she always thought them as PRETTY.

Pretty, shiny ball.

Nika looked at the crystal ball that Professor Bishop was holding. First thing, eh? "I think of lollipops!" You know cause they're both round? Well Bishop did ask what the first thing she thought of was and Nika was only being truthful. "But if you want something divination related I think of erm-... Those cool fortune tellers that where those scarf things on their heads and sit on pillows. You know the ones that where all of that colored eye make up?" She asked. Before waiting for an answer she continued," "Yeah so I think of one of them telling the future to somebody. I don't know if they have any of those in the wizard world, but where I live all of the muggles know about them. Some people tell futures in crystal balls for their job!" She said matter of factly. But of course that was loads of rubbish. Those muggle fortune tellers just make stuff up, they aren't really seers.

Jordan listened up and already he was seeing something. He saw a crystal ball that the Professor was holding. In his mind, he was visioning his Dead Mother and Father. He had no clue why, he, of all people, was having a vision in his head. He felt like someone was engaging his mind. Like his mind was telling him something. For all he knew, he thought maybe it could've been a message, or a signal, that something was wrong. Jordan raised his hand and answered the question, "I think of fortune tellers when I see the crystal ball. I think of what will happen in the future when I see the crystal ball."

Everyone who posted a response before this will get points, even if I didn't reply.
 

Renée had in fact asked the students what the first thing that came to their mind when they looked at a crystal ball was, but part of her hadn’t exactly expected to get entirely offbeat and creative answers. Of course, she should have expected it from Josh and Evelyn. In their own ways, they were always the ones who could come up with something interesting. “I’m sure she would enjoy that, Josh,” she said dryly, giving him a wry smile as she glanced at the Slytherin to see if she’d been paying attention. At least they hadn’t gone back to the discussion about fire symbology. It seemed Evelyn had her own ideas about the topic at hand, however, and that might have saved her Gryffindor from too much glares and such. That remained to be seen, though. “It could very well have been a bubble, Evelyn. Good suggestion, especially as it could be said there’s a bit of an ephemeral quality to both,” she said to the girl instead. Still waiting to see if there was going to be a reaction to Josh’s antics.



So far so good, and Renée glanced at the rest of the students, still balancing the crystal ball in her hands, as they continued offering suggestions. The few who had offered a cynical point of view made another wry smile creep onto her face, even though they had a point. “Interesting outlook, you two. No less true, considering the fact that crystal balls are quite often present in the imagery loved by Muggle fortune tellers and the like, whether or not they in fact do have divinatory abilities. It can be hard to really say if they in fact do see anything or not,” she began, before Mia’s hand had raised as well to offer another amusing opinion on the matter. “Seems you might have first-hand experience in that matter, Mia. Once again, that is sadly always possible, the use of magic to deceive people.” She couldn’t help but wonder what exactly did happen when a stranger would arrive.



They needed to get back on the topic of actual divination, though, so Renée refrained from asking for even more elaboration on Mia’s story. Luckily, it seemed many people were more apt to just go with the idea of crystal balls as conduits for the future, and she smiled at all the students who had said something to that effect. The little history lesson brought a bit of a grin to her face as well. “Yes, most commonly crystal balls are supposed to be said to give the diviner images of the future, although in fact if the right questions are asked images of just about anything could be seen,” she replied, acknowledging William’s suggestion that the past could be seen as well. “And in fact you are correct, Miss Marchbanks. Professor Trelawney allegedly did use crystal balls as weapons during the Battle of Hogwarts, but then I’d imagine if you studied that incident you would find that pretty much everything available was used in that fashion.”

She nodded again as Alex brought up the similarities between crystal balls and the prophecies stored in the Ministry, and gave him a smile as well. “Another valid point, although do you really believe that crystal balls have nothing real inside of them?,” she posited, before sending a little grin over at Kannalynne at her argument. “Uncertainty can, as it seems you have said, be attributed to any form of Divination, Miss Basthowe, not just with the use of crystal balls,” she agreed. “If one truly could know the future, it would mean that none of us have any real choices in life, and I don’t believe anyone would say that would be a good thing. And yes, Miss Malfoy, you are welcome to stop by my office any time if you’d like to discuss the Tarot,” she added, glancing at the blonde Ravenclaw with another little smile. “But let’s try and stay on topic here, alright?”

Well, it wasn’t quite staying on topic, but Jai’s suggestion brought another grin to Renée’s face. “An interesting conjecture, Mr. Pierce,” she replied in amusement, before deciding to ask something of him. “What in fact would you expect to see if you had looked in this?” It wasn’t really important to the discussion as a whole, but she imagined the curiosity had been put out there by his suggestion anyhow. It could very well start off another interesting and informative tangent, depending on the answer.

Hmm, another fascinating side-track, Renée thought as she heard Kurumi’s answer. “Another interesting fact,” she agreed with a smile, sensing that there had been something else in the Gryffindor’s mind not that long before that she supplanted by the scientific response. “I can’t say I know exactly what this particular crystal ball is made out of, but you very well might be right. This would have to be quite the old specimen if it was made out of beryl, however. Newer ones are made out of rock crystal, or quartz.” She might not have known exactly what made up this orb, but she still knew her history. As, it seemed, did Kurumi.

Another grin crept onto Renée’s face as Eino of the previous singing offered his response to the discussion, though. That was getting more to the actual point of the lesson, whether he knew it or not. “More accurately, crystal balls are used for crystallomancy,” she pointed out, “ although that in fact is a branch of scrying. I would imagine most serious Diviners wouldn’t use their crystal balls as paperweights, however. Not the ones they specifically use, as that could dim the orb’s power.” At least, that was her opinion. One didn’t usually use their wand for anything other than magical things, most of the time, and that should extend to other magical tools as well.

She turned and set the crystal ball in question back on her table, then returned her attention to the class in order to speak again. “Scrying, as so many of you have touched on,” whether or not they realized it, “is a method of using reflections, images, to gain insight into the past, present and future. of course, the reflections that one sees aren’t really there, but merely visions brought about through focus and reflected in the orb or whatever is used. Not only crystal balls can be used, in fact, for scrying. Does anyone want to suggest something else that could be used?” Eventually they would get to the actual activity she had planned, but touching on scrying was always in her plans. Everything was related when it came to Divination anyhow.

ooc: Moving things along . . . ;) Same rules apply as usual. (and those who replied to the first question all get one point)